


good morning america (from stark tower)

by thebigolive



Series: parker-leeds studios presents: the avengers (and co.) [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Gen, Kidnapping, Light Angst, No Romance, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Rated teen for swearing, Social Media, gma but from tonys pov, turns out fine dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 08:17:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20927048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebigolive/pseuds/thebigolive
Summary: Before he knows it, Tony's suddenly the official father figure of a world-famous, college-aged YouTuber.Is this what it's like to have to deal with this shit daily? Jesus. Sorry, Pep.or, tony's point of view on one (1) peter parker's rise to fame. takes place same time as the first installment of this series.





	good morning america (from stark tower)

**Author's Note:**

> hey uhhhhhhhhh sorry for disappearing for 2823547392 years:'') i'm really sorry but everything in my life has been REAL crazy and it's a wild ride whoo
> 
> i know that most of you that still follow this series were expecting the next part (following the end of good evening gb) buuuuuut the way that i planned it out is that there'll be another addition after this that is tony's pov for gegb as well!! hope u guys are okay with that:0
> 
> that being said, i hope you guys enjoy this work!! again, sorry for being so late lol

If there's one thing that Anthony Edward Stark is good at, it's math. He's a shit public speaker and never betters his public image through press conferences, but at least he can solve an integral problem. Kudos to him for being able to do high-school-level math.

What doesn't add up, though, is the way that Peter Parker sprouts up in the middle of overly-nosy tabloids and news channels that report on just about every bad thing happening on Earth. Last he checked, Parker's identity was protected, just another face in the crowd. Spider-Man was not and _should _not be linked to him in any way. So, naturally, Tony looks into it, because if even _Steve_ is reading about it in his old-ass newspapers, then it's something pretty big.

Jesus, how he wishes they were only about Spider-Man.

Peter and his little friend (Ned? Ted?) have taken to making cute little videos that really, _really_ rub Tony the wrong way, and it's not just because one of them is a direct attack on Tony's public image.

(Okay, maybe it is.)

Nevertheless, there's not a lot that people can do once something's out on social media. Tony knows this all too well. He's going to have to sit back and see how this plays out.

Surprisingly, it goes incredibly well. Turns out, letting the public know that a billionaire cries over healthy relationships does wonders for his image. Who knew?

And so, naturally, Tony decides to confront the kid after inviting him over to work on some prototypes for a new machinery system he's developing. The equations aren't quite right and the design is frankly quite outdated, so he decides to enlist the help of a young (brilliant, exceptional, beyond expectations) mind. It's an obvious choice, but the ping of the elevator and the loud, off-key vocals singing "Old Town Road" makes him rethink his decision.

"Hey, Mister Stark!" Peter calls, cutting his impromptu concert short. His hands tighten on the straps of his school backpack, heavy with textbooks and revision materials. Tony exhales in amusement and pats the bench next to where he's sitting.

"Have a seat, kid," Tony says, "and don't forget to leave the weird teenager humor at the door. I'm old. Can't understand that stuff."

"You definitely could if you tried, Mister Stark," Peter informs him. "You're kind of just stubborn."

"Really?" Tony asks, absentmindedly rubbing the metal in front of him between his fingers. "Because I watched that video about me you posted and I think I understood a solid twenty-three percent of it."

Peter freezes. Tony allows himself a lopsided smile as he turns back to his project, the picture of disinterest. He bends a wire this way, twists a little bundle of wiring the other, and sits back in his chair, shifting lazily to a more commanding posture.

(Contradicting, and doesn't seem possible, but he's not Tony Stark for nothing.)

"Peter Parker, you little shit," Tony says primly, _deceivingly sweetly_, "I cannot wait to tell May about the time you broke my million-dollar project."

"You heathen!" Peter wails, tossing his backpack to the side. Tony huffs in amusement and turns back to his project.

"If you help me figure out the proportions for this thing's new design then I'll let this go," Tony bargains.

"Bet," Peter says, snagging a rolling chair and sliding down to where Tony is working.

"Again with the young people humor."

* * *

The next video is on Rogers, and Tony laughs so hard he can't breathe when an informational clip plays. The video cuts to Peter afterwards, who's red in the face from trying not to laugh. Ned snorts behind the camera and they both lose it.

And so it goes.

They get more and more popular, and Tony takes more and more measures to protect the kid's identity. He's fiddling with some metal sheets (is a personal AI bodyguard plausible _or _doable?) as Peter laments his lost privacy on the kitchen counter.

"Cool," Tony says when a pause comes in Peter's grumbling. Inevitably, this leads to more grumbling, arguably more irritated than the previous level. He's complaining about being a celebrity now, and Tony runs his finger along the seam of a particular weld as he thanks the high heavens that Peter hasn't actually experienced the bad side of fame yet.

"Okay, Vivien Leigh, get off your high horse," Tony says. Immediately after the words escape his mouth, he realizes that Peter probably has absolutely no idea who the actress is. This is only supported by Peter's concession that he, in fact, doesn't.

God, he's getting old. He flips down his welding mask and gets back to work.

* * *

Tony Stark is a very busy man. He has a business to run, superhero-ing to do, and most importantly, a ragtag family to keep track of. Granted, Pepper is probably more competent than he'll ever be, but if there's one thing that defines Peter, it's irresponsibility.

Well. He supposes that's not quite fair, given that the kid's been doing amazingly in all of his courses. Still, the Spider-Man facet of Peter's life hasn't helped his self-sacrificial nature much.

Plus, the kid just posted a video about his own alter-ego, so.

It's generally lighthearted, so Tony lets it slide. He does have a talk with Peter, though, about his increased popularity (they're verified on Twitter now, Peter tells him excitedly) and consequently his increased responsibility.

("Peter," Tony sighs, "you _need_ to start being more careful with changing and shit. It's gonna give my gray hairs _more _gray hairs."

"But, Mr. Stark," Peter says, the picture of innocence, "your head's already pretty gray."

"Ha ha," Tony says, monotone. "Ultra-jokester, you are.")

Which means that everything's going fine. Life is good, if not a little more protected than before, and Tony and Peter are back to their regular get-togethers. Homemade pasta's on the menu tonight, and Tony's kind of feeling like making the sauce spicy tonight as he stirs a pot full of noodles and water.

(No, this doesn't have anything to do with Peter craftily sneaking cat stickers onto his suit. He's not that petty, God. He's an adult.)

Or, well. That's what he _would _be doing if the kid wasn't twenty minutes late and counting.

Peter's always on time. He feels horrible if he isn't, makes his best effort to schedule things painstakingly so he's not late to any of them, and most importantly, _always_ lets the party know when he's running late. Which. Hasn't happened thus far. Tony's phone stays silent on the counter as the pot spits some droplets of hot water onto the stove. He's trying to give it time, but there's a niggling feeling in the back of his brain that's telling him that _something's not quite right._

He turns off the stove and makes his way briskly to his phone, pulling up Peter's phone's GPS system. Looks like he's... on the sidewalk in a quieter suburb where people generally mind their own business. Fine. But the tracker isn't moving at all, not even when Tony waits a minute then refreshes the program.

And that's when it processes for him.

_Shit,_ Tony thinks, already calling for his suit and pulling up a display with security camera footage from the kid's phone's location. He allows himself all of two minutes to regain his composure as his technology works on finding the whereabouts of the car that's peeled away from the curb with a spider kid tossed into its trunk like day-old garbage. It's easy. They're clearly amateurs. Tony scoffs and watches the suit shift and fit together over his forearms.

"Let's hit it, Fri," he says cheerfully, smiling when his AI chirps an affirmative. It's a dark, twisted little image of happiness, his smile is, but he thinks it's warranted when two _fuckwads_ just tried to kidnap a _college student._

He takes off with a goal in mind, a destination in sight, and a ridiculous amount of anger bubbling in his gut.

(Is it really ridiculous, though? Is it _really?_)

He arrives at an old warehouse in less than ten minutes. It's weird, how time works. To Tony, it feels like Peter's been missing for at _least_ four hours, but it's actually been closer to a measly half-hour. Which. Is cool. Good for the kid, bad for Tony's heart. He takes a grounding breath to control his anger and blows the door inwards.

Anthony Edward Stark was never one for stealth. Dramatics are _much_ more his style.

Except he enters the warehouse and Peter's already dealing with the two kidnappers. The engineer catches the end of a phrase Peter's saying (Does anyone know what "make it double" references?) and exhales heavily as he spies tender spots scattered across Peter's skin. It's not good to pummel two people into the ground right now, he tells himself. Not in front of the kid.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter cries as he does some weird gymnastics move and flips the guy to the ground. "It's Team Rocket! We're fighting Team Rocket!"

"God, I wish you would shut up," the guy says as Peter deals a swift blow to his jaw. He's out after the crack.

"What can I say," Peter says, "I grew up on Pokémon."

"Grew up?" Tony inquires, singeing the woman's side with a blast. "Kid, you're like, one."

"Well, _someone's _old and grumpy." Peter pauses for a moment. "Well, doesn't matter! We're fighting my literal _childhood villains_, nothing's raining on my parade right now."

"Not much of a fight if we're chatting while beating them up, kiddo."

"Yeah. Fair."

"Can you both just, I don't know, _shut up?_" A voice pipes from the ground. The woman (Jessie? Tony's old and gray, hasn't watched Pokémon in a while) is glaring at them. Not very effective, in Tony's opinion. Peter sticks his tongue out at her.

"Anyways. Mr. Stark, you were beating up _Team Rocket,_" Peter says. It's like the fiftieth time he's said the words "Team Rocket" in the past ten minutes.

"Sure, kid," Tony says as he scans Peter's body for more injuries. "A Team Rocket that left bruises on pretty much every part of your body. Jesus."

"Eh," Peter replies. They leave the scene together, making sure to secure the two evildoers before calling the police. They'll have a riot with this one.

* * *

"I will never understand stupid 'Gen Z' humor or whatever the shit," Tony bemoans to Pepper as the newest Parker-Leeds video ends on their television screen. Pepper nods and turns on Marie Kondo's program.

"We've established that by now, Tony."

"Whatever," Tony decides. He gets up and stretches to the side, wincing slightly at the series of cracks he hears. Pepper is too engrossed in her show to care. Though, Tony doubts she'd really care either way. He's kind of old and rickety now. Jesus. All of his excuses nowadays center around him being old. What does this say about today's society? Something terrible, Tony's convinced. He even said "nowadays." That's, like, his old person peak.

* * *

One day, Tony discovers that the duo has taken to going _live_ at ungodly hours of the morning.

(Not because he's up too. Not in the slightest.)

He watches a couple and they both never realize he's there. It's probably the combination of sleep deprivation and them being the general idiots they are that keeps Tony incognito, and honestly, the engineer has words to say about that.

But that'll come later. First, he needs to actually check up on the kid. College is hard. MIT is harder. Especially with the whole Spider-Man gig, and now that Tony's thinking about it, he really should've checked up on Peter soon. Though, he reasons with himself, there's something to say with the fact that Peter and Ned find time to make livestreams and bi-monthly videos. Even if they're made at the ass-crack of dawn.

Well. Can't hurt to check in with a certain (almost legal, Jesus) kiddie. So Tony shoots him a text to meet up sometime in the next 48 hours and gets back to work, twisting a copper wire. As he works, his mind seems to travel back to reminisce about his relationship with Peter.

(Who knew he'd grown so soft?)

He's really, truly, incredibly thankful for the bond he has with Peter. It may seem cheesy, but the kid's helped him to be a better person in so many ways. It's more than just a mentor-protégée relationship. Tony loves the damn kid like, well, his own kid.

The realization makes his finger twitch, bringing a delicate sheet of metal to a forty-five degree angle.

"Ah, shit," Tony mutters. His phone lights up with a notification at the same time. He snatches it up quicker than he'd ever admit, eyes scanning the text on the screen greedily.

Kiddie: yes mr stark i'll be there tomorrow morning at 10!!!!!!!!!! we can work on whatever u want and grab lunch together:):):):):)

Tony can't help the soft smile that overtakes his face as he sets his phone down once more. He'd be more than happy to cook something, but he's got a feeling that Peter will want to treat him, despite Tony being the one that asked.

God, how lucky he is.

* * *

The Avengers as a whole are well aware of what Peter's been doing.

No, they don't really approve of Tony's recruitment of a baby to fight in very real battles, but Peter had laughed and twinkled his way into their hearts soon enough. This is probably why Tony receives complaints from them on the daily about their missing Parker-Leeds special.

("Listen, man, all I'm saying is that I _already _practically don't exist in the eyes of the media," Sam says one day. "Tell the kid to at least give me a _chance_.")

Natasha is more amused than anything. She knows Peter's terrified of her. Naturally, she decides to use this against him.

(Even though her soft spot for Peter is larger than life.)

She approaches him one day casually, when he's at the Tower and just trying to crank out his paper that's due tomorrow.

"Peter," she says slyly as Tony watches from the cameras, "it's interesting to me that you have never included a portion in your online series from me."

Tony's finding this all extremely amusing. This footage will _never_ be deleted.

"And," she continues, "I was wondering if there was any reasoning behind that."

"Um," Peter says. The pinnacle of intelligence, the future of Stark Industries, and Tony's heart all lie in this kid. Incredible.

"There is plenty to investigate when it comes to me, so I am hoping to see a segment on me in the near future." Natasha finishes. And with that, she turns on her heel and leaves. Peter remains frozen for a (worrying) good ten seconds before fishing his phone out of his backpack and tapping frantically at the keyboard. Tony has no doubt that he's texting Ned, so he turns away from the security feed and smiles to himself as he rewrites a bit of coding on DUM-E.

* * *

"the black widow is definitely a mom at heart" is both the peak of humor and the most daring thing Peter's ever done. Tony has to hand it to him, it surpasses all of his expectations. He's almost a little nervous for the kid.

Then he sees Natasha's cheeks with the slightest bit of embarrassed blush, and changes his mind. He calls Peter later that day.

"You got yourself into some deep shit, kid," Tony says as soon as he picks up.

"Oh, God," Peter says. They sit in silence for a few minutes, processing. Tony brushes a hand down his face and Peter just. Breathes.

Promptly, the call ends. Tony did not click the "End Call" button.

* * *

He's in the training room when the kid arrives at the Tower, practicing hand-to-hand on some unfortunate punching bag (though not as unfortunate as Steve's). FRIDAY's smooth, automated voice fills the room, quieting the sounds of tape on canvas and the rhythmic sound of arrows imbedding themselves into styrofoam, mesh, and cardboard.

"Mr. Parker has entered the Tower," FRIDAY informs them all. "He is currently in the kitchen, fetching a glass of water."

"Cool," Clint says. "Plan's a go."

Tony sighs, shaking out his arms and unraveling tape from his hands. He looks back at everyone, seeing them already returning to their activities, before steeling himself.

_Deep breaths, Stark. Peter won't hold it against you. Plus, you're an excellent actor in front of the cameras. Why not now?_

Tony steps out of the training room, opening the door with a little more force than necessary. The bang that it makes is enough to make him inwardly wince. Outwardly, however, he's kind of just shaking his arms out and rolling his shoulders.

Smooth, Stark.

He makes eye contact with Peter and allows himself an amused smile.

"Hey, kid," he says slowly, slyly. "Natasha's waiting for you in the training rooms."

Peter, poor kid, lets out a funky little squeak and downs his glass of water. Head ducked down, tail between his legs, he rushes to the doors of the training room.

He stalls for a moment, clearly having an internal debate, and Tony just leans against the kitchen counter and watches him. After no more than two minutes, he wipes his palms on his jeans and opens the door with a creak.

Silence.

A thud. Must be Natasha flipping off of the deck. Dramatic? Yes. Entertaining? Oh, _hell_ yes.

Quiet shuffling. Steve and Clint must be joining her.

Hushed conversation. Seems more one-sided than anything.

The three exit the room. Tony's waiting for them. The kid's probably traumatized.

"Oh, my _God_," Clint wheezes, face cherry red, "his face was _too_ _much_, holy _shit_\--!"

"Clint, I'm still not sure why we needed to do that. It just terrified the poor kid." Steve says. Tony agrees, though a little friendly intimidation never hurt anyone.

"I also was not a part of this plan. I just wanted to intimidate him by myself." Natasha says.

"Nat, that's not the point. The point is no intimidation at all. We all know you loved his video, so why'd you have to intimidate him?"

"It's fun." Natasha replies. Tony shakes his head and calls B.S.

They find their way back to their rooms in good humor, Tony being the only straggler. He sips on some green tea while he waits for Peter to come back out.

("Mr. Stark, the amount of coffee you consume is not, nor will it ever be, normal _or_ healthy," Peter tells him one day.

"Excuse you, this is only my seventh cup of the day. Seven isn't that bad," Tony argues back as he downs the dregs of the pot he made that morning. Peter raises one eyebrow, then the other.

"It's ten in the morning, Mr. Stark. Why don't you drink some tea? It's good for you and still has some caffeine," he suggests. Tony shrugs.

"Sure.")

He emerges from the confines of the training room looking shell-shocked. His eyes are wide, though his complexion remains a healthy, rosy color.

"How goes it?"

"Mr. Stark," Peter says seriously, "I think that I can't ever show my face here ever again."

Tony snorts and pours himself another cup of tea. He nods his head toward the pot, a gesture for _have at it._

Peter somehow manages to pour himself a single cup of green tea in the most miserable way possible. Tony thinks he's being overdramatic.

(Just like himself.)

* * *

Days go by, Peter does more videos, and Tony watches them all. He reads many articles about the duo, making sure that their rep is nothing but positive. They're just two college kids trying to make people laugh.

One day, as Tony rests on the couch and can feel his eyes drooping, he comes across a particularly interesting article about Peter and him taking a break from the lab and going for lunch. Though it's in no way negative, he still finds himself scrolling down to the comments in search for the scathing hate that he's so used to receiving.

(He wouldn't wish that upon Peter for anything. The kid's been through enough.)

Fortunately, they're nothing but positive. He reads a few before settling farther into the couch, reaching to place his phone on the coffee table. It makes it, but he's out before he can turn his phone off.

(If he wakes up with a still-folded blanket on top of him and love for a stupid college kid filling his heart, that's nobody's business but his own.)

**Author's Note:**

> aaaand that's it!! thank you so much if you read all the way through -- i'm super thankful!! please please PLEASE leave a comment and let me know what you thought -- it helps me a lot with knowing what i'm doing right and what i'm doing wrong!!
> 
> remember to drink water today, and i hope you enjoyed my work!


End file.
